


Twenty Feet

by silverwriter01



Series: Shortest Distance [1]
Category: Warrior Nun (TV)
Genre: Avatrice, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:01:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25072066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silverwriter01/pseuds/silverwriter01
Summary: Beatrice and Ava didn't know that the emotional distance to falling in love was also about 11.5 dirra thick.
Relationships: Ava Silva/Sister Beatrice, Mary/Shannon
Series: Shortest Distance [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1827889
Comments: 75
Kudos: 1108





	Twenty Feet

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to AngelEQ for recommending the show and for commiserating with me. Some of the dialogue was written with Angel.

**Twenty Feet**

Beatrice never acted first. At least, not anymore. Her one action had ended with her shipped away to a catholic boarding school, and taking her vows at the age of sixteen. Now, she only reacted. She always let others lead. She allowed them to throw the first punch. She listened while they spoke. She observed. She followed. She was, as others often put it, guarded.

Beatrice observed Ava Silva for a long time before interacting with her. She didn’t move when the others did at the dining table, but she knew the other sisters were being foolish. She had already judged Ava before that meal, and she wasn’t a danger. 

Ava didn’t seem to be a warrior like Lilith or a leader like Shannon. She was thoughtless and self-centered. But she did have a unique energy and will to live. Beatrice didn’t believe that Ava had tried to kill herself. There was a zest for life in her. 

There was one thing Beatrice did think of Ava although she would never tell anyone other than God: Ava was one of the most beautiful girls she had ever seen. Her desire to touch Ava, to wipe away her tears outside of Mother’s office shocked her. She hadn’t felt that way about another in years. She told God about her desires too.

She only told God so that He would grant her forgiveness. 

**Fifteen Feet**

Ava had liked Beatrice from the start. Their first meeting had been one of the nicest she experienced in Cat’s Cradle. Beatrice hadn’t smiled; she hadn’t worn any readable expression at all really. But she hadn’t been actively hostile. Ava knew she could win Beatrice over. She had years of practice winning or alienating people with just her personality. She wanted to win Beatrice over more than Lilith or Mother Superion. 

She liked showing off her skills to Beatrice. She looked so proud at how Ava jumped through the eight feet of concrete with no trouble: two blocks worth. 

She was eager to show her skills at jumping through three blocks, or 12 feet. Yet, she didn’t make it. She bailed at nine feet as the walls tried to solidify around her.

Even though Ava no longer trusted the doctor, she was grateful for the earpieces and GPS so that Beatrice could watch over her as she phased through the concrete.

“Can you hear me?”

“Yeah. I’m right next to you,” Ava quipped. The look of incredulity along the held tilt Beatrice gave her made her break out a smile. “Just for that, I’m going to ace this.”

The first bit was easy. It was always easy. But then it got exponentially harder. 

_Fuck, fuck, fuck!_

Ava started gasping. The walls were trying to seal around her, make her part of them. 

“I want out. Bring me out.”

“Just a few more feet. You can do this.”

Ava trusted her. She kept pushing forward. She leaped, knowing the end and Beatrice had to be close. 

She crashed to the ground, and she had never been more grateful to fall on her face. Everything was disoriented. Hands were touching her. They grasped her shoulders and her face. She could tell they were words of comfort and praise even if she couldn’t make them out yet. She just focused on the face that had saved her.

“Thank you,” she whispered, hoping Beatrice knew how much she meant it. Beatrice brushed her hair a few more times before suddenly pulling away, focusing on the tablet. 

Ava didn’t understand the sudden change of focus, but she went with it. Then she didn’t have time to focus on why she was so sad Beatrice stopped touching her because Lilith was back.

**Ten Feet**

Beatrice should have known better than to push so much in one day. She was mentally exhausted from Lilith’s return, sharing Warrior Nun Melanie’s story, and then sharing her own. The walls she erected to guard her were thin and fragile. She had given into the desire to touch Ava earlier that day. She tried to rectify her mistake by focusing on the mission, but she could still remember touching Ava’s beautiful face.

“Why can’t you get through it? What’s stopping you?” she asked, knowing that her own heart might not recover from hearing Ava’s pain. And her heart did ache when she realized Ava was afraid of being paralyzed again.

“That’s not what scares me.” Beatrice held her breath so all she could hear was Ava. “What scares me is being alone. Abandoned in some sickbed with no one to…With no one.”

“But that will never happen,” Beatrice pledged, knowing it to be true from the bottom of her heart. “It wouldn’t matter if you were quadriplegic, festooned with boils, or a talking head in a bag. You would still have us. And we will never leave you.”

“You mean that?”

“You know I do.” And she did. She knew she would always be there for Ava even if the others weren’t. She could almost hear God telling her to protect and stay by Ava’s side no matter what may come.

She wanted to touch the block, but the tracker started moving on her tablet. She counted off the feet as Ava moved through them, rushing to the end. “Nearly there.”

Ava pushed through and fell into her arms. She embraced her with one arm, keeping hold of the tablet in her other hand.

“You made it,” she laughed, unable to stop herself from cupping Ava’s face to look at her. They shared a laugh of victory, and Beatrice found she couldn’t stop looking into Ava’s eyes. Her hand even had a mind of its own, brushing her cheek before stroking the side of Ava's face again.

“Only thanks to you,” Ava softly stated. She broke their gaze first, looking down as she tried to control her breathing. 

Beatrice’s eyes flickered to her mouth, before clearing her throat. She looked away and focused on her tablet again. 

**Eight Feet**

Beatrice looked around the tomb, part of her filled with wonder that they were the first here in probably centuries. “Homestretch.”

“Let me guess. Adriel’s tomb is...dead ahead.”

Beatrice raised her light to look at Ava’s face and could see the smug smirk. She tried to keep a stern look as was appropriate for their mission. But Ava’s proudness of her terrible pun had her smiling too. She even chuckled, because it was truly awful.

She didn’t have time to focus as Ava was asking about the explosives. She told half of the truth, about how the mission was the most important thing and how Ava wasn’t a team player.

She neglected to tell Ava that she wasn’t going to leave her stuck in a wall. She would blow the whole city up to save her.

They spent time bickering over measuring the wall, but Beatrice refused to give in. Ava’s safety was the most important thing so she couldn’t miss the entrance.

“Which, uh, I assume is…” She hesitated, trying to think of a way to say it that would make Ava happy as she took the sword. “In the dead center.” 

She could see Ava whip her head around to look at her in shock, and when she met her gaze, Ava was beaming at her. Ava laughed and with a huge smile still on her face, she gestured between them. “Is this our thing now?”

They laughed.

“If trading terrible puns is wrong, then I don’t want to be right.”

They shared a look that made Beatrice want to focus on something other than the mission, but she couldn’t do that now. She went down the checklist to remind Ava.

“Earpiece.” Ava touched her ear. Beatrice acknowledged it. “Check.”

“Tracking beacon.” 

Ava touched her neck.

“Check.”

“Friend by your side.” 

Ava looked at her with a smile. Beatrice returned it. “Check.”

**Seven Feet**

“I still don’t know how we got out of there,” Mary said, breaking up some more limbs to put on the fire. 

Beatrice didn’t know either. She was only grateful they had even though she knew the fight was far from over.

They were in a remote part of Italy. They had thrown away all electronics and carried off on foot to escape detection. They divided up the camping tasks. Lilith had hunted for food while Mary collected firewood. Camilla and Ava had made camp while Beatrice inventoried their gear. She knew she had the undeclared assignment of figuring out their next move.

They eat in silence. She was sure each was reflecting on the fight. She wasn’t surprised when Camilla tried to liven up the conversation.

“Ava, tell us about the boy you were traveling with,” Camilla requested.

Beatrice did not want to hear the story, but she listened as Ava recanted it. She sharpened her daggers harder as Ava reached the part where they had sex in the closet. She hoped to drown out the details, but thankfully Ava didn’t give any. The story soon ended with the Tarask taking Lilith away, and Ava running away with Mary following her.

Mary looked deep in thought. She asked, “What was his real name?”

Ava stared off to the side for a moment and then laughed. “I honestly don’t know. Everyone called him JC. I never asked.”

“Fuck! Jesus Christ,” Mary proclaimed, sitting up. Camilla crossed herself before scolding her. “Language, Mary.”

“No! You fucked Jesus Christ. JC? Jesus Christ?”

Everyone looked aghast. Ava protested, “No, I didn’t.”

“Was he white?”

“What? No. He was from...I didn’t ask where he was from but he was tan. Brown.”

This satisfied Mary. “It was Jesus then. Jesus wasn’t white.”

“Lots of people are not white,” Lilith interjected. “Stop being blasphemous.”

Mary leaned forward. “Hear me out. He was traveling around, collecting people as he went. Basically collecting apostles. He had a hero complex. He practically baptized her when he saved her from the pool. He fed her and told his friends to treat this random stranger kindly. Ava said he was well-traveled and a world-class chef. Therefore, Jesus.”

Ava waved her arms around. “I don’t know if he was world-class. I ate gruel made by nuns for most of my life. I’m sure anything would have tasted amazing. This fire-roasted food tastes amazing even though it’s dry and burnt.” 

“You said he made a banquet of food every morning after partying all night with illegal drugs and alcohol,” Camilla added. “You said there were croissants. Those are not easy to make, and for him to be so experienced at such a young age. How did he find the time to make such things?”

“Jesus don’t sleep,” Mary stated.

Beatrice shook her head. She knew Camilla was now sold on the idea that Ava had slept with the son of their lord and savior.

“It was not Jesus!” Ava shouted. She crossed her arms over her chest in a huff. 

Beatrice wanted to smile at how cute Ava looked while pouting, but part of her was saddened that Ava loved someone else.

They spent the next few minutes in silence, listening to the fire pop. Beatrice was actually surprised when it was Lilith who asked the question that she was certain was on Mary’s and Camilla’s minds. “So how was Jesus in bed?”

Ava threw a stick at her. “You’re impossible! He wasn’t Jesus!” 

Lilith caught it with ease and tossed it onto the fire. Her wicked grin sent Camilla into giggles which set Mary off into deep, laughs. Beatrice felt warmth and laughter start to bubble in her chest. She couldn’t hold back as she watched Ava’s expression switch from annoyance to confusion to something akin to joy. She started to laugh at the same time Ava did.

**Six Feet**

“What are they doing back there?” Mary asked, adjusting the rearview mirror to get a look at the two giggling women in the back of the van.

Camilla leaned forward between the seats. She wore a smile as she always did. It was one of the reasons the sisters liked her. She whispered as if conspiring, “They’re exchanging puns.”

“Puns?” Mary repeated, turning her head to look at Camilla. 

“Yes.” Camilla giggled. “They are truly awful puns as well.”

“Huh,” Mary said, putting both hands back on the wheel. “Weird.”

“Don’t judge them,” Lilith said from the passenger’s seat. “You and Shannon had sparring. They have puns. It is their way of courting.”

Mary’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. She forced them to relax. “You knew?”

Lilith huffed and Mary could see Camilla trying to hide a smile out of the corner of her eye. “You **all** knew?”

“Of course we knew. It was fairly obvious,” Lilith answered, making a show of looking at nails. Mary glanced over and was grateful to see they were her normal, well-trimmed nails and not the black, claws.

“But no one said anything.”

“It’s not like you had taken vows, and Shannon was the Warrior Nun. I simply imagine we just didn’t question it.”

Camilla leaned forward to join the conversation. “And, you know, the vows of chastity doesn’t explicitly state anything about relationships with the same sex. So I imagine you could do a variety of …”

“Stop,” Lilith and Mary ordered at the same time. They were loud enough to distract the pair in the back. 

“Everything okay?” Beatrice called.

“Yeah. We’re fine,” Mary said. “Ignore us.”

She observed that Beatrice did choose to ignore them and went back to whispering with Ava. “Oh, she is a goner.”

“Yes,” Lilith added. “She never would have let that go before.”

“Doesn’t she seem happier?” Camilla asked. “A girlfriend has done her wonders.”

Mary suspected Beatrice and Ava weren’t in a relationship. But she also suspected they may be together in the future if everything worked out. 

“It did do wonders for her attitude,” Mary mused. “You know, I know someone else who could use an attitude improvement.”

Lilith flicked her a stern look. “Don’t.”

“Lilith…”

“Stop.”

“Don’t you think…”

“I’m warning you to stop.”

“That you could use a girlfriend?”

Lilith covered her face with a groan. Camilla reached forward to grab Lilith’s arm. “Oh yes. You deserve someone to love you, Lilith. You deserve wonders too.”

Mary turned her head to evaluate the pair. “Are you volunteering to be her girlfriend, Camilla?”

Camilla squeaked and turned a deep red. She ducked back behind the seat, and Mary turned her gaze to Lilith. Lilith, whose cheeks were flush, glared at her. “Cease and desist.”

Mary smirked. “Okay, okay.”

**Four Feet**

“Wow. That training regiment with Lilith is really working out,” Ava said. Beatrice hummed her agreement. 

“No, seriously. Look.”

She could tell Ava was posing with her biceps out of the corner of her eye. She focused on the Warrior Nun journal instead. “I see it.”

“No, you don’t. You’re not even looking. Come on.” Ava moved closer into Beatrice’s personal space. She showed off her arm. “Look.”

Beatrice allowed herself a two-second stare at the well-defined arm in front of her and hated herself when she felt a longing to touch. She looked away. “Very good. Your training is going well.”

“You hardly looked. Here, touch it. Feel how strong I’m getting.”

Beatrice felt herself flush. “That’s okay. I’d rather…”

Ava grabbed her hand and placed it on her bicep. She flexed into the hand that held her. “Nice right?”

“Very nice,” Beatrice squeaked. She cleared her throat and rose to her feet. “I have to train myself.”

“Whoa, how did you do that so smoothly? Teach me that. Let’s train together. Lets spar.”

_Oh, Lord. Please help me to remain your faithful servant._

**Two Feet**

Ava sat down on the floor beside Beatrice who was studying a map in front of her. “Here.”

Beatrice looked at what she held in her hands.

“Postcards?” 

Ava fanned out the cards to show her. “Yeah. I picked them up from the store before we left. I haven’t been anywhere, and I want us to go somewhere when this is all over.”

“Us?”

Ava grinned, enjoying the startled look on Beatrice’s face. “Yes, us. Me and you.”

_She’s so beautiful. How can she not know how beautiful she is? Okay, calm down, girl. Don’t want to scare her off._

Ava turned the cards over and held them out. “Pick a card. Any card.”

She grew antsy as Beatrice took her time selecting a card. She suspected the other woman might be waiting on a sign from God or something. She breathed easier when Beatrice finally pulled one from the stack.

“Which is it?”

“Capri in Italy.”

“Have you been?” Ava held her breath, hoping the answer was no. It wasn't.

“Yes.”

Ava slumped. She let the cards fall. “Of course you have.”

_Everyone has been everywhere but me._

“We were chasing a band of thieves who had stolen some Divinium shards. I caught a glimpse of the sea, but that’s all. I was either in the back of the van, on the ferry in the van, or running after them.”

“Oh,” Ava said, stunned. “So you haven’t swum in the Blue Grotto?”

“I think we holidayed near Dover as a child, and I played in the water. But other than that, I haven’t swum in any water that wasn’t about learning the skill or for a mission.”

Ava didn’t know what was worse: being unable to visit somewhere because she was stuck in a bed or being so close and not seeing it at all.

“How about here?” Ava said, holding up another card. Beatrice grabbed it. “Oh, the Grand Place. We ran through it one night, chasing a wraith. It was dark and I barely got a chance to look. I would like to see it in the daylight.”

“I heard Brussels was boring,” Ava said, feeling the need to point out the opinion JC had given her. Her heart wrenched at how disappointed Beatrice looked. 

Beatrice put the card off to the side. “I suppose it would be boring if you were looking for clubs or such. I know they have museums and I wanted to see the Atomium.”

“Oh my god,” Ava exclaimed. “Seeing the Atomium would be so cool! And to see the Manneken-Pis.”

Beatrice seemed to light up and she scooted closer to Ava on the floor. “Yes. The story behind the statuette is very interesting, and I would love to see the fragments in person.”

“Me too.” 

They stared at each other and it was like that breathless moment she had phased through the twenty-foot block the first time.

She was so close that Ava knew she only had to lean forward to kiss her. And she wanted to kiss her. She was also almost certain that Beatrice wanted to kiss her too. 

Beatrice was the one to look away. She started rifling through the cards.

“Cologne,” Beatrice said, reading off a card she picked up. “I read that the Rhine is beautiful at night.”

Ava felt like her heart was going to beat out of her chest. She gushed, “I heard that too! I dreamt about walking alongside it. Well, rolling alongside it in a wheelchair. There were limits to my dreams.”

She swallowed as a hand covered hers. 

“You can make your dreams come true,” Beatrice whispered. “There are no limits. You can even expand your dreams now.”

Ava felt her face twist into a reluctant smile. Beatrice always had a way of pulling her out of her darkness. “Expanding them? I suppose I could.”

She made a show of closing her eyes. “I would like to walk along the Rhine with someone.”

“Just someone?” 

She could hear the tease in Beatrice’s voice, but also nervousness. 

“Someone special. Someone who will hold my hand,” she said, very aware that Beatrice’s hand was still on top of hers. 

She could hear the longing in Beatrice’s voice as she said, “That sounds wonderful.” 

“Someone who would share terrible puns with me as we walked hand-in-hand,” Ava added, daring to peek an eye open. She saw Beatrice had gone red.

“I...I have to go,” Beatrice hurriedly stated. She rose to her feet in a move that made Ava envious and dashed off. Ava scrambled onto her feet to follow her, trusting the Halo would give her speed to catch her.

_She’s not getting away. I have to make her believe me._

**One Foot**

Beatrice ran harder then she had in her entire life. She could hear the word for lesbian bouncing around in her mind in a variety of languages, and all of them sounded snarled and angry. Her parents’ voice hurt the worst.

“Beatrice! Stop!”

Beatrice was surprised Ava had caught up to her as untrained as she was. However, she was sure the Halo and Ava’s emotions were helping.

“I haven’t been walking, much less running, for a year!” Ava called out between breaths. “Wait up!”

Beatrice slowed to a stop. She didn’t want to, but she was concerned about pushing Ava too hard. She rested her hands on her knees to catch her breath. She suddenly worried she had pushed herself too hard. Or perhaps she was about to have a panic attack.

Ava skidded to a stop beside her, resting a hand on her side. “God that was fast. Oh, man. Pain. Pain in my side.”

They struggled to catch their breath, watching each other warily.

“Why did you run?” Ava asked as soon as she could breathe.

 _Lesbich_. Beatrice heard the words again. _Unacceptable_.

“It’s none of your concern.”

“None of my concern? You took off on me.”

“Not everything is about you,” Beatrice snapped. She regretted her harshness when she saw the look on Ava’s face. She tried to be gentler. “I have secrets that are mine alone.”

“It’s not really a secret that you’re gay, Beatrice. You told me.”

Beatrice fumbled. “I never told you forthright.”

“It was easy to connect the dots, and it doesn’t make any sense why you ran away. Especially since it was clear I was trying to hint something to you as well.”

But Beatrice knew, in her heart, it would just be a hint. It wouldn’t be something Ava really meant. It would be an experiment just as her first love said it was before she was shipped away from England.

“I couldn’t stay there,” Beatrice tried to explain. “Everything was closing in on me. Everything was making me suffocate. Every voice I had ever heard was shouting at me, telling me I was wrong and not normal.”

“Not every voice,” Ava protected, moving a step closer. Beatrice moved a step back. “Every voice.”

“I don’t think that of you, Beatrice.” She moved quickly and held Beatrice’s hands before she could stop her. “You know I don’t. You once said it was everyone but me.” 

Beatrice conceded the point but pulled her hands away. She couldn’t be touching Ava right now if she wanted to remain strong enough to resist her. “Yes. You had nothing to do with it then.”

“Then? As in I have something to do with it now?”

“Yes,” Beatrice cried. “You make me...you make me feel…”

Ava took Beatrice’s hands in hers again. Beatrice found she wasn’t strong enough to pull away this time. “Feel what?”

Beatrice laughed and tried to wipe away her tears on her shoulders as Ava held her hands too tightly to move. “Just feel, I guess.”

“No guessing. How do I make you feel?”

“You make me feel valued and wanted,” Beatrice confessed. She felt more tears fall down her face. “I don’t hate myself when I’m with you.”

“Then why are you upset with me? Why did you run?”

“Because you make me so happy,” she sobbed. She tried to pull away this time, but she couldn’t. She was held too strongly. 

Ava pulled her close and wrapped her in a tight hug. Beatrice knew fifty-three different techniques to escape the hold, but she chose not to. It felt nice for Ava to hold her even if she knew it wouldn’t last.

“If I make you so happy then why are you crying?”

Beatrice knew it was the moment it all ended. “Because you’ll bring me so much pain.”

The grip around her tightened. “I would never hurt you, Beatrice.”

“You will. I love you, Ava.”

The grip on her loosened, and her heart broke. “And I know you’ll never love me in return.”

**Clear**

Ava couldn’t believe the words she had just heard. It was like a dream come true. Not just for someone to love her, but for that someone to be Beatrice. She loosened her grip so she could look at Beatrice’s face.

She was crying, and Ava realized she was crying too. 

“Let me go,” Beatrice whispered.

Ava did, but only so she could cup her face. Beatrice closed her eyes as Ava used her thumbs to brush away her tears. “I love you too, Beatrice.”

She smiled as Beatrice’s eyes shot open. “What?”

“Your ignorance is really a downer sometimes,” Ava said, gleeful that she had an opportunity to use the wiser woman’s words against her. She pressed up on her toes to level their heights and kissed her.

_Oh, wow. Oh, wow!_

The kiss was everything she imagined it would be and more. It was awkward and tasted salty from tears. But Beatrice reached up to touch her face while they tenderly kissed, and it was perfect.

“You were waiting to turn those words back on me, weren’t you?” Beatrice whispered as their kiss slowly ended. Ava beamed and kissed her cheek. “Yes. Yes, I was.”

Beatrice laughed and used her sleeve to wipe her face. “I must look dreadful.”

“You look beautiful,” Ava promised. She kissed her again because she wanted to. “I’ve wanted to kiss your beautiful face for ages now.”

Beatrice’s smile looked fragile. “Ages?”

“Yes. Ages. Lifetimes. I know you may be worried about being with me as I have never been with a girl before. But it’s not like I couldn’t think as I was stuck in bed. I had crushes on boys and girls. I was able to watch shows the nuns probably wouldn’t have allowed if they had known, but screw them. You make me happy and special. You take my breath away every time you look at me or touch me. I’ve wanted to kiss you since we were at Arc Tech. I want to keep kissing you in this life **and** in the next. No or. ”

“In this life and in the next,” Beatrice promised. “I think I can take this risk with you, Ava. You are worth it.”

And so Beatrice acted instead of reacting for the first time in a long time, and Ava was delighted when Beatrice kissed her.

**Author's Note:**

> A dirra is only 43.94 centimeters. So 11.5 dirras is 505.3 cm which is 16.6 feet. Beatrice overestimated, but probably for good reason.


End file.
